The NHL Draft Lottery: A Cash Cow Waiting to be Milked

Right Wing Conspiracy is a weekly column about hockey, with the odd hockey-related conspiracy theory thrown in for good measure.

The NHL Draft Lottery: A Cash Cow Waiting to be Milked

The National Hockey League is fully leveraging the popularity of the Winter Classic with six outdoor games during the upcoming 2013-14 season, a blatant cash-grab that would make J.P. Morgan himself proud. Whether or not the multitude of outdoor ice-stravaganzas will diminish the Winter Classic itself is a question worthy of debate. In the meantime, the NHL continues to miss out on a clear opportunity to maximize playoff revenue. “Is this joker really going to argue for increasing the number of teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs,” you ask? Not a chance, mon frere – the Quest for the Cup is just perfect with sixteen teams, thankyouverymuch. My proposal is simple: make ‘em fight for first.

At the conclusion of each season, the NHL utilizes a weighted lottery system to award the first overall pick in the draft. In recent years, the draft lottery has been televised. Simply put, if the hockey-watching public had no interest in watching the high-stakes bingo that is the draft lottery, it would not be on the air. And if the hockey-watching public likes the draft lottery, wouldn’t they love a Draft Tournament?

Here’s how the Draft Tournament would work: At the end of the regular season, the teams finishing 27-30 (the bottom four) meet in a single-elimination tournament, seeded 28 vs. 30 and 27 vs. 29. Rather than a weighted lottery, the teams finishing 29th and 30th would play at home in the first round, with the last-place team guaranteed home-ice throughout the tourney. The first round winners advance to play for the 1st overall pick, while the losers meet to play for the 3rd pick in the draft. Thus, draft picks 1-4 would be earned, not awarded.

Potential for teams to “tank” late in the season in order to make it into tourney (Quick fix: For tourney purposes, first tiebreaker for teams tied in points is non-shootout wins, second is most points earned in the last ten games of the regular season).

While a “Fight for First” wouldn’t showcase Stanley Cup Playoff-caliber hockey, it would feature four teams battling for pride, a bit of redemption, and for a chance to improve themselves by winning the top pick in the NHL Draft. It’s made-for-TV drama. It’s a cash cow waiting to be milked.

Discussion

I really don’t think the players would have ANY interest in playing in this proposed tournament at the end of their season. The added risk of injury, the added wear on their bodies to compete for a new team mate?
I dont thnk so.